Sundance Film Festival 2022
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“I Was Just Desperate to Bottle up My Wonderful Dad Somehow”: DP Ondi Timoner on Last Flight Home
After a patient in California makes a Death With Dignity request, there is a 15-day wait until that request can be filled. Ondi Timoner’s Last Flight Home was filmed during that period, when Timoner’s father said his final goodbyes to his family. As Timoner, who also served as the director of photography, describes, she attempted to be as unobtrusive as possible while filming, but her footage captures the pain of losing a loved one, as well as the solace a family finds in itself in such moments. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2022 -
Sundance 2022 Critic’s Notebook: Dos Estaciones, Meet Me in the Bathroom
In the opening sequence of Juan Pablo González’s second feature, Dos Estaciones, DP Gerardo Guerra’s Steadicam roves a tequila farm’s fields as workers chop down agave plants; when they pause for lunch, the camera pans equally slowly, seemingly without planning, to bring whoever’s speaking into frame. In these opening moments, Dos Estaciones could be any one of a number of post-Lisandro Alonso films composed of tracking shots, slow pans and nonprofessional performances by Latin American laborers, differentiated only by the skill and specifics of their execution. A static shot then introduces farm owner, Maria Garcia (Teresa Sánchez), trying and failing to start her […]
by Vadim Rizov on Jan 24, 2022 -
“I Feel So Blessed That Somehow My Father’s Brilliance Was Captured”: Editor Ondi Timoner on Last Flight Home
When Ondi Timoner began to film her family and her father as he waited the obligatory 15 days before opting for death with dignity, she never intended to make a feature-length documentary. As she spent more time with the footage, however, she realized that she had captured something that is paradoxically both rare, in that it is infrequently discussed and depicted, and universal, in its confrontation of death. Timoner answered questions about undergoing that journey and what she learned as she repeatedly watched and edited the scene of her own father’s death. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2022 -
“Make Choices With the Edit to Sculpt and Reveal an Inherent Truth”: Harrison Atkins on Emily the Criminal
A financially precarious temp worker effectively locked out of a stable job due to a minor criminal record takes a black market gig buying goods with stolen credit cards in Emily the Criminal. As its logline suggests, the film examines the gig economy and class structure in America, and editor Harrison Atkins discusses how he shaped the film to approach that film with anger rather than numbness Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Atkins: I’ve been working […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2022 -
“LDS Folk Are the Same Whether They’re North Americans or Finns”: Tania Anderson on Her Sundance-Debuting Doc The Mission
World premiering January 24th in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at this year’s Sundance, The Mission marks the feature-length doc debut of Helsinki-based writer and journalist Tania Anderson, who, on a cold winter day back in 2016, happened to pass by a pair of English-speaking young men in familiar suits discussing the perils of temptation. Which prompted the open-minded British-Swiss-American to wonder not, “What the heck are Mormon missionaries doing in Finland?” (my first question), but “What makes them tick?” And from this combination of curiosity and accidental eavesdropping the idea for The Mission was born. To find out more about the film, which […]
by Lauren Wissot on Jan 24, 2022 -
“I Had to Look Inward and Accept the Uncertainty” | John Patton Ford, Emily the Criminal
The last two years have prompted much contemplation and reconsideration of the reasons why we make our films as well as the ways in which we make them. What aspect of your filmmaking—whether in your creative process, the way you finance your films, your production methodology or the way you relate to your audience—did you have to reinvent in order to make and complete the film you are bringing to the festival this year? Where to begin with that question? First off, we closed financing in March of 2020. After years of trying, I finally got the money to make […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2022 -
“We chose to embrace the armpits of Los Angeles”: DP Jeff Bierman on Emily the Criminal
In John Patton Ford’s Emily the Criminal, a woman saddled with student debt and minimal job prospects owing to a minor criminal record turns toward the black market to make her living. As cinematographer Jeff Bierman explains, capturing the unglamorous Los Angeles the protagonist inhabits in the August heat was a crucial part of emphasizing the gulf between the dream of success and the reality of pursuing it. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Bierman: John and I […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2022 -
“We Wanted to Keep the Film Grounded”: DP Cristina Dunlap on Am I Ok?
In Am I Ok?, the directorial debut of Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne, a pair of best friends have their lifelong friendship suddenly confused by one taking a job offer in London and the other coming out of the closet to confess her romantic feelings. Below, cinematographer Cristina Dunlap discusses how she avoided the stereotypical overlit comedy without making the film too serious and burying the jokes in the process. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Dunlap: The script […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2022 -
“I’ve Always Loved the Editing Style in a Lot of 1970s American Films”: Editor Suvi Solja on The Mission
The Mission focuses on four missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints working in Finland. In addition to the often frustrating day-to-day missionary work, director Tania Anderson also captures the missionaries on the eve of their departure, during their Finnish language lessons and on their welcomes home. Editor Suvi Solja discusses the challenges of piercing the nonchalant façade of the subjects and the decision to include a voiceover in the film, as well as why she frequently watches the opening of Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2022 -
“You’ve Got to Roll With the Punches” | Tania Anderson, The Mission
The last two years have prompted much contemplation and reconsideration of the reasons why we make our films as well as the ways in which we make them. What aspect of your filmmaking—whether in your creative process, the way you finance your films, your production methodology or the way you relate to your audience—did you have to reinvent in order to make and complete the film you are bringing to the festival this year? When COVID first hit, we had been filming the young missionaries in our film for seven months. We had 17 to go. At that time, it […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2022
